Page 9

Chapter 8

Ace

T he door to the cabin slammed shut, and Ace waited just a few moments before moving.

Ace took off his mask, setting it and the knife behind him. Turning back around, he bent down and pressed his lips firmly to Ashmine’s. He pulled back, but only a centimeter.

“They don’t suspect anything yet. How far are you willing to let this go?” He spoke the words against her mouth.

Ashmine peered up at him, unphased.

Even though she was tied down to an operation table.

Even though she knew what Hawk and Silas had planned.

Even though she was going to be ruined by the end of tonight.

“They need to know I can handle them,” she murmured. “They have this image that I’m an angel that turned to a rat in a blink. They need to hurt me before they understand the truth. Then there can be no doubt of my intentions. That when I told them I chose them, I meant it. I just meant all of you. I choose you all.”

“I know.” He stroked her face adoringly.

Two years ago, he had pushed her to Hawk and Silas. He thought if they had her, if they sunk into her, they would understand.

That she was meant for all of them.

Except, then he had been arrested and never had the chance to explain. And so Ashmine was left with two angry men that thought her a cheater, a liar, a deceiver .

“Remember if it is too much, I will stop it. The button is below you to alert me, I know your safeword. But I won’t let them kill you. I am stopping it, if it gets that far.”

“No.” Her eyes darkened even further, becoming voids that swirled against her pupils.

A steady thread of her intentions.

“Ashmine. They can’t kill you. You never did anything wrong for fuck’s sake! All you did was try to keep us all safe. To keep us all protected. You only turned to the Headmaster after you didn’t have another choice. It’s not your fault we were caught. We were going to get in trouble either way. Your testimony did nothing to change that, if anything it only served to shift the reasoning. To help us get away with murder.”

“But they were my murders. I committed them. Now rough me up before they return. Bite me, bruise me, make them jealous. But don’t fuck me, then they won’t touch me. It will be too much like the past.” She shut her eyes, relaxing back onto the table.

It was heady when she relinquished all control to him. He wanted nothing more than to sink his cock into her.

But it wasn’t the time.

“They thought you cheated on me.” Ace smiled around the words. At the hypocrisy. The irony.

If they would just listen to the truth, it wouldn’t have had to come to this. But by the time Ace got out of jail it was too late to explain. They hadn’t read or returned a single letter of his either.

Silas and Hawk preferred to bury their heads up their own asses than listen to the truth.

They thought Ashmine had made a fool of them all. That she was the fissure that broke them apart.

That wasn’t the case at all.

She was the connective tissue.

The blood in their veins.

The heart they didn’t deserve.

Silas and Hawk felt scorned by Ashmine. As if she had cheated on them. As if she had filled them with empty promises. As if she had betrayed them all.

In their minds, Kristoff was the last straw. It was why she and Ace agreed she needed to “date” him. They chose him due to his darker motives, and then they lured him to the woods.

He would be the final piece of this night.

“Fine.” Ace didn’t agree with her sentiment. “I won’t stop them unless you say so.”

It was a lie.

He wouldn’t let his brothers kill her.

He wasn’t quite sure what they had in mind, but knowing his sick, twisted brothers?

It wouldn’t be good.

He shifted down the table, his mouth latching onto her neck, sucking and biting.

“Fuck, that feels so good.” Ashmine arched as best she could, but her restraints did their job.

“Hush, you better not let them know you’re enjoying it.”

“Just you Ace, you can know. I love you.”

The words stabbed him as he continued his assault on all her exposed skin. Sucking and biting as he went. He was immensely satisfied to leave his mark on her.

It had been too long.

He would gladly spend a decade in prison if it meant at the end of it, Ashmine would be waiting for him with open arms and soft lips.

Just as she had been eight months ago.

She had made a deal with the devil for him and he was determined to repay her.

No matter if it meant going against his own wishes.

Because this night…

The cabin, the revenge, the murder, even the masks .

The entire plan.

It was all Ashmine’s.